How can a library oppose the violent past of a building?

The Library Against War, Fascism, and National Socialism consists of the book estate of Gian Pietro Maria Marzola and is located in BASIS on the grounds of a former military barracks in Schlanders, South Tyrol.
Gian Pietro Maria Marzola was a university professor of surgery in Innsbruck and passed away in 2017. As a young man, he experienced the suffering and horrors of the Second World War. His extensive book estate documents a profound engagement with the history of violence of the First and Second World Wars. At the request of his relatives, the book estate is now housed in BASIS and has been available there since May 2025 to the community as well as to all interested people.

BASIS is located on the site of the former Drusus barracks, which were built in 1935–1936 and were used by both Italian fascists and German National Socialists. In the vacant areas of the site, propagandistic inscriptions can still be found on the walls today, along with soldiers’ carved initials on window shutters and forgotten military relics in the garden. For many older residents of the community, the place is associated with painful memories.

BASIS occupies large areas of the site as a creative industry space that was previously missing in the region. Used both as a workspace and as an event venue and communal workshop, BASIS is especially frequented by young people and artists in the region.

Despite the project’s supraregional acclaim, BASIS is threatened by planned demolition policies and the conversion of the site into residential housing. Preserving the military barracks and thus the current use by BASIS offers the region not only a community-oriented space but also the possibility for critical engagement and remembrance of regional history and the traumas connected with the Second World War. So far, a critical remembrance of the violent past has not taken place on the site. The Library Against War, Fascism, and National Socialism aims to enable a beginning of such engagement.

The library does not see itself as a closed archive of knowledge but as a workspace that invites critical reflection on history. Its infrastructure consists of a central bookshelf in the middle of the room, a worktable, a book display, and a printer. It was designed to be mobile and can be spatially adapted for events and readings. Yellow book supports mark the thematic focuses chosen to facilitate research and highlight gaps. Yellow reading notes, which are available in the library, offer the opportunity to share personal insights by leaving them inside the respective books after reading. An accompanying brochure documents photographically the relics of the violent past within the former barracks grounds and the studio house.

Text by Irini Schwab

Exhibition graphics for “Pipps Pappa. Oder eine wirklich wahre Geschichte aus dem Pazifik“ at MARKK Hamburg, created in collaboration with Kooperative für Darstellungspolitik.

The interactive exhibition explores Carl Pettersson’s life and the colonial history of the Pacific, drawing parallels to Pippi Longstocking’s adventures in Taka-Tuka-Land. It highlights plantation systems and trade with Hamburg used as means of exploitation.

To encourage visitors—especially children and families—to reflect on colonial history and its narratives in children’s literature, we designed a multi-layered approach to storytelling, organized into clearly defined, visually distinct, and color-coded chapters. The interactive stations and deliberate use of varied materials invite visitors to actively engage with the exhibition.

Open till September 2026.

»Lüderitz« is set in two places that are around 12,000 kilometers apart and yet share the same name: Lüderitz in northern Saxony-Anhalt and Lüderitz in southwestern Namibia. The former is the origin of the von Lüderitz family, from which the merchant Adolf Lüderitz later emerged. In 1883, he laid the foundation for the consequential colonization of what is now Namibia by fraudulently acquiring land. The starting point was a place named after him: Lüderitz. Until 1915, the country was under the violent „protection“ of the German Reich and was at the same time the site of rich diamond deposits and the scene of the first genocide in the 20th century.

Also, »Lüderitz« won the silver medal Deutscher Fotobuchpreis and has been shortlisted for the Dummyaward 2024 and is now in tour.

»Lüderitz«
Hardcover, 162 pages, 20 x 26 cm
German and English
Sold Out

With texts by Werner Hillebrecht and Lucia Halder.

"Das ist meine Arbeit" was the final project in a series of initiatives exploring public discourse around education and working conditions, mainly in the field of graphic design. With the aim of developing, transforming, or discovering methods of interdisciplinary and participatory exchange, the project brought together a variety of experimental formats.

It began with a theory workshop designed to equip students with a critical framework that could support their work on the independently planned HURRA-Festival (@hurrahurrafestival). A field trip to Rovereto opened space for exchange with Bianca Elzenbaumer of Brave New Alps, offering insight into socially engaged design practices. The project also included the live-action role play The Great Success Machine, an invited format conceived and led by Till Wittwer, which challenged dominant ideas of success and productivity. In addition, Jula Baltschun was invited to contribute her concept for a systemic constellation titled How can I secure my income as an artist?, which addressed the structural and emotional dimensions of precarity in artistic work.
The documentation brings these diverse approaches together and concludes with a personal statement.